North American Arms - .22 Magnum Pug

When you are looking for something really small to conceal and carry, there
is a growing trend to use some of the smallest revolvers available on the
market. The Ruger
LCR is available and weighs in at just 13. 5 ounces. It
provides one with 5 shots of 38 SPL or even 357 Mag. But what happens when
something as small as the LCR is still way too big? You could turn to the
North American
Arms company and try one of the myriad of small...no, let's make
that really small revolvers they offer.

At less than half the weight of the LCR, the NAA 22 Magnum Pug weighs in at
just 6.4 ounces. It is a 5 shot single action revolver shooting the 22 Winchester
Magnum. Don't get me wrong....this isn't a suggestion for your every day
carry. However, if you find yourself in a situation where your regular
carry piece simple won't work, this might be a viable alternative.
Or.....maybe it is the backup gun. (2 is one and 1 is none) Or
maybe you don't want something like this for deep cover carrry so in that case, it
could just be a fun little revolver to shoot when you don't have anything
better to do. Any of the above choices are possible so I leave the
decision up to you. In the mean time, let's take a look at this little
revolver and see what it offers.

The above photo gives you an idea of the Pug's diminutive
size. The previously mentioned Ruger LCR is shown above it. You
might think the Pug would be a handful to shoot but that is not the case as the
textured grips, made slightly over-sized, provides about the best grip possible
on a revolver this small.
It is much, much gentler on the hand than a factory 38 SPL load coming from the
LCR which, by the way, doesn't imply that the LCR has recoil issues. The 22
Winchester Magnum is simply a good fit for the size and weight of the Pug.

The Pug is available with either a XS white dot or XS tritium
sight system, the later being for low light situations. The shallow V
notch rear sight as a centered single line that works with the front sight for a
"dot the i" sight picture. Both the front and rear sights appear to be
drift adjustable for minor windage adjustment.

Loading and unloading of the Pug is accomplished by first
removing the cylinder pin from the frame. To remove the cylinder pin,
place the hammer at the half cock position. Pull the cylinder pin block
down (located just below the barrel) and turn it 90 degrees.

Slide the
cylinder pin block out of the gun (moving it towards the muzzle end of the
barrel). The cylinder can now be extracted from the frame. You may
have to move the hammer position a small amount while doing this for the
cylinder to easily clear the frame. Mine
typically drops free.....so make sure you keep a hand under the cylinder to
prevent it from bouncing off of the floor. Installation of the cylinder is
accomplished by reversing the removal procedure.

The fit and finish of the Pug is nice. The cylinder
locks up tight as you pull the hammer to full cock. Milled into the back
edge of the cylinder are 5 safety slots. They are positioned between each
chamber in the cylinder. The safety slot allows you to safely carry the
Pug with all 5 chambers loaded. Simply pull the hammer back enough to
allow the cylinder to rotate and then position it so that the hammer, when
lowered, will land on the slot. Doing so locks the cylinder in place with
the hammer resting on the cylinder rather than the rim of a cartridge.
Simple and safe.

My pug hit several inches low on the target compared to my
point of aim. The orange bullseye in the above photo is 1.5 inches in
diameter. Three 5 shot groups were shot at the target. Those marked
with "1" were literally the first 5 shots from the Pug and were shot from 15'.
The group was approximately 2 1/4". The 2nd group, also shot from 15' and
marked with "2", also measured approximately 2 1/4". The 3rd group, marked
with "3" and shot from 10', measured just over 1". I held the top edge of
the front sight in the rear sight notch (basically the dot was missing from the
"i") while keeping the front sight centered on the bullseye assuming one could
see if. The shorter distance and modified sight picture move the group up
considerably. It is possible that I've not quite mastered the proper sight
picture. However, speaking with the employee that sold me the Pug, he
mentioned that he also has one and indicated it shoots low. At 25 yds, I
would consider it an issue....but not at 10 feet. As one of the
instructors in my FS firearms training course would say, this is a firearm
intended for "bad breath" distance. Regardless, 75% of those 15 shots can
be covered with a tennis ball. When aiming center of mass, that is more
than accurate.

If you are wondering what kind of velocity loss one gets from
shooting a 22 Mag cartridge from a 1" barrel, check out the following table.
The data for each cartridge was derived from a single 5 shot group. Since I wasn't working up a load but simply curious as
to how fast those little bullets were traveling, I'm not fretting over a bit of
accuracy.

Std Deviation

Extreme Spread

Velocity

Winchester
Super-X 40 gr JHP

40.8 FPS

85.8 FPS

864 FPS

Winchester
Super-X 40 gr FMJ

21.8 FPS

54.5 FPS

875 FPS

** CCI 37 gr JHP

38.4 FPS

88.4 FPS

934 FPS

**The CCI ammo is 1970s vintage, left over from when I was
shooting a Thompson/Center Contender back then. It had a 14" .223 Rem barrel and I
occasionally used a .22 Magnum cartridge adapter in it. The label on the
plastic box is long gone so I've no idea of the specifics other than the bullet
which I removed from a cartridge and weighed on my reloading scale. The
head stamp is CCI.

With the growing number of people carrying firearms for personal defense, the
ammunition manufacturers have taken notice and produced a couple of loadings
that are optimized specifically for short barrels....short as in 2" short.
Speer and Hornady have .22 Magnum offerings in the product line, tweaked just
for something like the Pug.

Speer has a .22 Magnum cartridge that runs over the chronograph at 1150 FPS
from a 1.9" barrel. The 40 grain bullet generates 99 ft/lbs of muzzle
energy. The Hornady offering is a 45 grain bullet traveling at 1000 FPS
from a 1 7/8" barrel and yields 100 ft/lbs of energy. I've not tried
either of these as they weren't on the shelf when I picked up my Pug. I've
got some on order and will update the above table once I get the ammo and run it
over my chronograph. In contrast, the Ruger LCR (pictured above) pushes a
factory loaded 125gr Speer Gold Dot +P to 913 FPS.